I don't believe it. Talbot Avenger over £3000!
Trilogy
on 25 August 2014
Comments
gordonbennet on 25 August 2014
Staggering condition, you could eat your dinner off the engine.
I think there may be more people thinking of running older cars that can be repaired and miantained simply, especially older drivers who find the modern electronic heavy eurobox about as interesting as watching paint dry, good ones like this hopefully free of tin worm will always fetch good money, fully rustproofed that could last someone 20 years and never need a single visit to a garage except for MOT test, easy DIY, free tax in a few years too unless they shift the goal posts again.
Even that Subaru i bought in early Spring, the prices of similar cars on completed ebay auctions has gone up a fair bit, reckon around 30/50% higher now, be interesting to see how prices fare over the winter.
Edited by gordonbennet on 25/08/2014 at 14:50
elekie&a/c doctor on 25 August 2014
Wow,it,s got one of those distributor things .excellent!
72 dudes on 25 August 2014
It's not even the original Hillman Avenger!
I said on here a few months ago that the prices of 'classic' cars were getting silly and somebody disagreed, saying it was representative of inflation over the years. Oh well....
Still, it is a nice example of a car that was already outdated in 1979/80, and as GB says, a useable car with easy DIY.
Trilogy on 25 August 2014
Quite fancy a 1998-2005 Legacy 2.5 sedan. A little bland, yet a great (now cheap) car.
daveyjp on 25 August 2014
My dad had a Hillman Avenger, P reg first time round. DIY skills are a definate requirement, it was always in bits!
focussed on 26 August 2014
The company that I worked for in the early seventies had one of the first Hillman Avengers as a pool car for us service engineers. I can remember two features of the thing - the large foam rubber steering wheel centre boss used to regularly drop out and land in your lap and more disconcerting was it's habit of jumping out of fourth gear at high speed on the motorway-used to frighten you to death!
The-Mechanic on 26 August 2014
I had a V reg saloon one back in the early 90s. It was modified slightly as it had a 1725cc Holbay Hunter engine with twin 45 Dellorto carbs, Spax adjustable shocks and uprated springs.
I used to blitz the local boy racers in their XR3's, GTE's etc as I had the advantage of rear wheel drive that put the power down. Their front wheel drives just spun up in a cloud of smoke as I powered away from the lights. Happy days LOL.
Well it was until I had to fit two gearboxes and a rear axle that couldn't take the extra power and promptly exploded under duress....
Oli rag on 26 August 2014
In Sunderland in the 1970s, there used to be a Tiger Avenger which always seemed to be parked in the ABC carpark. It's the only one I've seen and at the time I was desperate to own it. Suspect someone will shatter my youth by telling me it was as rubbish as the standard car!
The-Mechanic on 26 August 2014
Ahh, the Avenger Tiger. Only ever saw two years ago and loved them. One was yellow / black the other orange / black.
For the time they were a pretty quick thing by all accounts but not as popular as the hot Escorts of the time.
Avant on 26 August 2014
The Tiger must have been the only Hillman that was remotely desirable. Most Hillmans managed to be stodgy, underpowered and unreliable all at the same time.
What brand loyalty there was (and there was a bit, from people who'd had Hillmans since before the war) was dissipated whe they became Chryslers, then Talbots. Talbot had been a revered brand before the war, but the change came too late and the cars were undistinguished, even the ones that hadn't originally been Hillmans.
I had one of the first Chrysler Horizons in 1978; it was cheaper and a bit roomier than the VW Golf. I soon discovered that I should have had the Golf.
72 dudes on 28 August 2014
I agree with Avant to a point.
The later Chrysler/Talbot models were pretty awful, after a worryingly low mileage the engines in the Horizon/Alpine/Solara sounded like a skeleton playing drums in a dustbin (although they rode well).
I don't agree that Hillmans were stodgy and undesirable though. Look at Hillmans, Singers, Sunbeams and Humbers of the 50's and 60's and in each class the Routes group vehicles were better made than the Ford and Vauxhall equivalents. I've read they used thicker sheet metal too.
My memory of the Minx/Vogue/Gazelle/Hunter models is that they were solid. You can't say that about similar vintage Mk 2 Cortinas and Victors.
By the time the Hunter was on its last legs in the mid/late 70's, it was a dinosaur though, having changed little since 1966, and was up against the Mk 4 Cortina and Victor 1800/2300 'transcontinental', which were far superior to the Hunter.
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